Nathan Eccleston doesn't do regrets. Having experienced a 10-year professional career in the game, why would he?
“I look back at my time at Liverpool and think I’m so blessed and grateful," Eccleston says in the second part of an exclusive interview with the ECHO. "I guess that type of positivity allows me not to live in regret of what could have been.”
Even so, nearly 10 years to the day since he left Liverpool, there are still lingering, unanswered questions about his time at the club, which all stem from the events of August 31, 2012 and the sliding doors moment he believes changed the trajectory of his career.
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“I probably would have been given an opportunity," he says as he discusses his deadline day departure to Blackpool following Brendan Rodgers' capture of AS Roma striker Fabio Borini earlier in the window. "I remember Dani Pacheco was trying to get a move away from Liverpool and, quite contrasting, four weeks later Blackpool were top of the Championship and I couldn’t get in the team. But after Pacheco’s move didn’t go through, Liverpool had three strikers injured.
"It was a life-changing moment. I remember coming into training that morning, it was transfer deadline day, I spoke to my agent and I spoke to Brendan [Rodgers] as well. He had just signed Fabio Borini, who was of a similar age to me. Brendan said, 'I can’t guarantee you games, you can train with the first-team but the majority of your games will be coming with the reserves'. I understood and I always appreciated his transparency.
"He referenced Scott Sinclair who had been on loan a couple of times from Chelsea. He finally made his [permanent] move to Swansea and had a really good season and then he got a move to Manchester City. He said that I was at the same stage, having had a couple of loan moves and if I got the next one right I could be back at a big club the following season as a permanent fixture in the starting XI."
Despite departing Liverpool perhaps a little too soon on reflection, Eccleston had learned an abundance of wisdom during his seven years, and three different managers, at Anfield.
The now-31-year-old had spent the last two months of his time on Merseyside training with the likes of Steven Gerrard, Luis Suarez and a 17-year-old prodigy named Raheem Sterling, before travelling to the United States as part of the Reds' first pre-season tour under Rodgers. Ten years later, it's a summer that hasn't been forgotten on Merseyside.
Just days after the curtain had fallen on Liverpool's uninspiring 2011/12 campaign, Fenway Sports Group were on the hunt for Kenny Dalglish's successor after the Anfield icon had been dismissed from his duties as manager, despite overseeing the club's best return in the domestic cup competitions since Gerard Houllier's class of 2001 completed an impressive clean sweep.
If there was any lasting doubt in the minds of Liverpool's principal owner John W Henry and chairman Tom Werner on who to appoint, they were quickly eliminated by Rodgers, the current Swansea City manager, who worked his way through a 180-page dossier in front of his soon-to-be-bosses.
Titled 'One Vision, One Club', Rodgers' blueprint instructed Henry and Werner on how he would return Liverpool to the pinnacle of English football, with the club having failed to win a league title since Dalglish, himself, led it to its final championship 22 years earlier.
The Northern Irishman would eventually secure the vacant managerial role and the red half of Merseyside would embark on a new era, with supporters being told to buy into his values as he aimed to lead the club out of the transitional phase it had been knotted in since Rafa Benitez's departure in the summer of 2010.
Having worked as a youth coach at Chelsea's Cobham academy between 2006 and 2008 in what was his first professional role in England, Rodgers' aforementioned blueprint was sprinkled with the inclusion of youth as he aimed to overhaul the ageing Anfield squad Dalglish had picked up from Roy Hodgson in January 2011.
Eccleston was one of those handed the chance to reignite his Anfield career by the newly-appointed Reds boss in the summer of 2012. "How he was with the youngsters and the senior players, I thought he was a really good man-manager and obviously, what he went on to achieve during his time at Liverpool was great, so close to winning a league title," Eccleston recalls.
Having been thrust into a star-studded Liverpool dressing room initially by Benitez in 2009, and permanently promoted to Melwood by Hodgson, Eccleston then spent the majority of his time away from the club over the next two seasons with uninspiring loan spells at Football League clubs Charlton Athletic and Rochdale.
But after returning from his one-month stay at Spotland in November 2011, the striker spent the rest of the season turning out for Liverpool's reserve side after failing to impress Dalglish. He managed an impressive return of eight goals and three assists in just 18 games for Rodolfo Borrell's side. Ecclestone then returned to the first-team domain for the first pre-season under Liverpool's new manager.
If the appointment of Rodgers, who had less than 12 months of experience in the Premier League, was viewed as a potential risk, then the decision to allow Fox Sports to produce a fly-on-the-wall type documentary which shadowed the then-39-year-old during his first months in the limelight at one of Europe's biggest clubs was certainly a far greater one.
Now viewed by people associated with the club with a great deal of unease, the six-part documentary, Being Liverpool , did little to enhance the reputation of Rodgers who many had viewed as the finest upcoming British manager English football had to offer at the time.
Capturing the club's 2012 pre-season tour of the United States and the first few weeks of the new Premier League season, the airing of Being Liverpool immediately posed questions to those who had approved of such a series to be filmed as Rodgers' Liverpool tenure got off to a challenging start.
An opening day drubbing at the hands of former assistant manager Steve Clarke at West Brom set the tone for a difficult adaptation period for the new boss, with his side mustering just two points from the first 15 on offer.
In truth, Liverpool found themselves thrown into the deep end during the early stages of the campaign with fixtures against Manchester City, Arsenal and Manchester United during the months of August and September. The cushiony, happy-clappy documentary that had seemingly been approved by the club's hierarchy in a commercial attempt to gain a leg up in the American market seemed like a PR mishap.
However, in the eyes of Eccleston, a youngster looking to capture the attention of the fans and his new boss, he viewed the six-part series as a huge opportunity to showcase his talents. After all, it was the exposure of the club's in-house media channel LFCTV that documented his raw talents with the reserve and under-18s sides as he made a passage into the first team.
"For me, firstly, it was a great experience to be a part of it and secondly, I think it gave a greater insight into what really actually does happen from a day-to-day standpoint," he says. "I don't know if it was because I was young, but I felt it was an opportunity to express myself because once the camera are there, there was no hiding place.
"I remember LFCTV when they first started and they would document our under-18s games, there were only a few clubs who were doing it at the time. When we went on the pre-season tour and it was being documented. As a youngster you kind of really go with what’s happening, you don’t really have a say. Giving that kind of insight is great for fans but there are obviously internal issues that happen and I remember on that trip the incident with Raheem."
The moment Eccleston is referring to is of course the infamous war of words between Sterling and Rodgers, in a clip which still circulates today, nearly 10 years later. During the club's time in the US, it was one of a handful of moments captured by the cameras that highlighted the Liverpool manager's man-management techniques, as well as shades of inexperience.
Eccleston reveals, giving his take on the events over in the US: "Normally, that type of thing would not be documented and wouldn't come out, it would be an internal conversation that would stay between the players. Personally, at the time, knowing Raheem and his character, knowing how passionate and hardworking he is about football, that stigma has stayed with him throughout his career and even to this day he does not get the credit he deserves for the numbers he’s put on the board and all of his accomplishments.
"At the time, it was just a throwaway comment but it was a comment that was made to a youngster that, at the football club, was deemed in such high regard and people were so hopeful of. Even from a managerial perspective, I’m not sure if it was spontaneous or strategic but managers and coaches over the years have been known to say certain things to get a reaction out of players.
"I think that incident with Raheem sent shockwaves across the country and it was like the first viral moment that had come out like that. At the time, I felt it was unjust and I didn't think it was necessary because, as I say, I knew Raheem on a personal level and there were people in and around the football club who then perceived him in the wrong way.
"I think that was a lack of understanding, culturally things are different and not every human is going to act the same way. In football, I think they throw a blanket over everybody and we should all conduct ourselves the same but unfortunately that’s not real life. I think he’s [Sterling] misunderstood. In terms of English players, he has probably been the most consistent player over the last decade. I think that tells you everything you need to know about Raheem Sterling."
Rodgers would last just over three years at Liverpool before he was replaced by current manager Jurgen Klopp. In his time, Rodgers came within a whisker of delivering the club's first Premier League title but was eventually pipped to the post by Manchester City. Although, he is credited as the man who assembled one of the greatest goalscoring forward lines Anfield has ever seen as Sterling and Daniel Sturridge were spearheaded by the individual brilliance of Luis Suarez.
The trio were responsible for 62 of the 101 goals the Reds managed over the course of the 2013-14 Premier League title chase, which stood as the most goals scored by a side not to win the title until Manchester City snatched the unwanted record with their total of 102 in 2019/20.
Yet, despite the excellence of Sterling and Sturridge, it is the captivating Uruguayan who is still muttered about in the surroundings of Anfield today. Suarez's record-equalling tally of 31 strikes in a sole Premier League season would later earn him a move to Barcelona, where he went on to cement his legacy as one of the game's all-time greats.
And even from his first sessions on Merseyside following his transfer from Ajax in January 2011, his quality was clear to see which left a fresh-faced Eccleston feeling out of place. "Him [Suarez] and Torres were both exceptional talents and world-class strikers, but as a youngster playing with both of those I was thinking, ‘I’m a mile off it here'," he said.
"Honestly, it was just like playing real-life FIFA. As a youngster, I don’t think the reality kicks in - unless you're a really senior, senior player - that initially reality of 'I’m actually a footballer' and training and playing with certain players. I used to get back home and even think about training and saying hello to certain players.
"When I played with Suarez, he was different in the sense of when you saw him you just thought, 'wow.' Liverpool at the time had some superstars but he was like Gerrard's level, he was a million miles above everyone else. I remember, I’ll never forget, we were playing an 11-a-side game and the ball got played down the byline, and I think Reina was the goalkeeper, Suarez was on the touchline on the edge of the box, it was an impossible angle and he flicked it with the outside of his boot, and I’m not joking, the whole training ground stopped and started clapping. I was just thinking, 'wow, how did that go in'. It was like a technical error on FIFA. It was just so weird, it was a weird moment.
"He was so passionate and driven, but it always looked like it was so easy for him. Like he was having fun in the park with friends. I feel like he was just a natural, which I feel comes from being South American and playing street football over there, they play with a certain level of freedom.
"With Suarez, he demanded such high levels of quality from everybody, himself first and foremost. There were no exceptions for anybody, regardless of age, it was that old-school mentality of, 'if you’re good enough, you’re old enough'. He held everyone in the same high regard. I remember listening to Jamie Carragher and he said in one of his first training sessions Suarez went right through somebody. He didn’t care who it was. That was his mentality of, ‘I'm here now'."
At the age of 31, four years the senior of Sterling, the two have, through their own choices, gone in completely different directions. Eccleston now is the founder of an international sportswear company, Peaches, and has recently resided in Dubai after he called time on his playing career. Given the nature of his entrepreneurial mindset, the interview ends as he's asked what advice he'd give to the 15-year-old Eccleston who first walked through the door of Anfield in 2005.
“What a question that is," Eccleston laughs. "I’d probably say to myself to be more present because moments are fleeting, right? Be more ruthless, definitely be more ruthless, be more selfish. I think my outlook on life is positive. Everything in life happens for a reason."
Nathan Eccleston doesn't do regrets.
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